Beautiful
by MargaritaVille108
Summary: The prospect of going to the Yule Ball is looking grim for Hermione.  Her two best friends are too thick to realize that, being a girl, she would make a suitable date; however, someone else, finally gets his chance.


I am currently rereading the fourth book and thought, "How did Viktor ask Hermione to the Yule Ball?" so I wrote a one-shot about it. Sorry for any errors, grammatical or canonical. Please review if you have the time.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. The credit belongs to the inspiring J.K. Rowling.

Beautiful

"Antidotes…page 464," Hermione said to herself reading the table of contents of a Potions book she had just pulled off the library shelf. She was sure her antidote in Potions class would be satisfactory, but she wasn't taking any chances. Of course, if she made a really superb one, Professor Snape would probably call her a know-it-all and take points away from Gryffindor. There really was no winning with him. She decided that, however, she would rather be called a know-it-all and get it right than have an antidote that was lacking. She imagined the last day of Potions when Professor Snape would be testing their antidotes.

"How did you get your to look like that?" Ron would ask. "Can you help me?"

"I can only help good-looking boys," she imagined herself saying to Ron, the stunned expression on his face. Of course, she would never actually say that, she could never muster the courage to do so. Plus, she wouldn't want to give Snape the satisfaction of insulting of a Gryffindor and Ron wasn't horrible looking. Somehow she figured if she basically called him ugly, it might hurt his feelings. Then again, should she care? He hurt her feelings. He said he'd rather go to the ball with a good-looking horrible girl than, well he said Eloise Midgen, he didn't really call Hermione ugly, but he as good as did. Neither he nor Harry ever said she was pretty.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone else pulling out a chair at a neighboring table. She let herself glance around to see who it was. It turned out to be Viktor Krum. Hermione sighed. Admittedly, she was rather impressed by his study habits, but the all too often appearance of his fan club was very annoying. No doubt, they were only seconds behind him. She wouldn't be able to get any work done, not with all the giggling and other nonsense. She would have to take the book back to her dormitory. She copied down the first few sentences of the page before putting it in her bag. As she struggled to fit it in with her other books, she noticed a pair of shoes approach her seat. She slowly looked up and saw Viktor staring down at her. She quickly sat upright. _What did he want? A book? Did he want to know if she knew somewhere he could study in peace?_

"Hello," he said.

"Hello…" she replied, trying to hide the confusion in her tone.

"I am Viktor…Krum," he hesitated before saying his last name.

"Yes," Hermione laughed slightly. "I know."Viktor laughed too. He looked at her for a few minutes as if expecting her to say something. Then it clicked.

"Oh, I'm Hermione Granger." He smiled. She wasn't really sure why he suddenly chose to speak to her. _Did he just figure he should introduce himself since he too was always in the library? Or did he know she was friends with Harry?_ "Please don't ask me about Harry," she silently begged.

"My friend is a huge fan," she blurted out.

"Oh," he said looking a bit defeated. "That is nice."

"We saw you at the World Cup—fantastic game," she added, trying to make him happier.

"Thank you," he replied. There were another few minutes of awkward silence. Hermione found it difficult to keep looking at him so she chose to take a long look at her shoes.

"Err…well, I guess I should be going now," she reached for her notebook and bag.

"Vould you be liking to attend the ball vith me?" Viktor asked suddenly.

_Did he….?_ She was sure she heard him wrong. _There was no way he just asked…_

"Pardon?"

"Vould you be liking to go to the ball on Christmas vith me?"

She heard him right.

"T-The Yule Ball?" she asked trying to buy herself some time.

Although she was planning to skip the ball, in truth, she did want to go, but definitely not alone. That would result in much more embarrassment than it was worth. She had hoped that Harry or Ron would ask her, it would only make sense, but neither one of them did…because they, well at least Ron, wanted to take someone pretty. She looked at Viktor. _Why not go with him?_ He was…nice, or seemed nice¸ from what he had just seen. He was probably really interesting. They could talk about all the books he read in the library. It would be nice to make a new friend and she would have a date.

"Yes," he answered. "The Yule Ball."

"Yes," she smiled. "Absolutely." Viktor seemed to relax a bit at her answered. He actually smiled.

"Thank you. That vill be nice." Hermione smiled again and so did Viktor. They stood yet again in silence, this time a little less awkward.

"Well," Hermione grabbed her bag, this time still looking at Viktor. "I guess I should be going. I have a lot of homework I have to do and my other books are in my dormitory, but it was nice talking to you and, thank you for asking me to go."

"You are velcome. May I valk you out."

"Of course," she answered. She was glad he didn't offer to walk her back to the common room one because she didn't think they would be able to carry a conversation that long, but mostly because she didn't really want anyone from his fan club to see them.

"You are coming here many times," Viktor stated as they reached the entrance to the library.

"Oh, yes," Hermione found herself laughing slightly. "I study a lot."

"That is vhy I haff been coming here, you know." Hermione gave him a curious look.

"I haff been trying to talk to you, but I…alvays am losing my nerve."

The idea of Viktor Krum, after seeing his courageous performance at the World Cup, losing his nerve seemed silly and Hermione tried not to laugh.

"Oh…well there was no need for that," she tried to sound friendly and comforting. "You can talk to me whenever you like."

"I vould be liking that very much."

They reached the corridor outside the library. It was surprisingly empty.

"Hermy…Herm…," Viktor tried to pronounce her name.

"Yes," she replied quickly. She would have to teach him later.

"Vhere should ve be meeting for the ball? I am not knowing the castle that vell to be finding you at your dormitory."

"You'll be coming from the…ship, right?" Hermione asked hoping she wasn't being offensive. _Did they call the Durmstrang ship a ship or something else, something more dignified?_

"Yes. I vill, vith the other students of Durmstrang."

"Alright, well how about I meet you right outside the school. Right at the front doors," said Hermione afraid of offering to go to the ship. It would be far too intimidating to walk on the Durmstrang ship.

"That vill be good," answered Viktor. "I am sure you vill be looking beautiful…you always are." And with that, and obviously more courage than he had during previous encounters, if one could even call them that, he grabbed her hand and kissed it leaving Hermione thoroughly speechless.

"Thank you," she managed to say after a silent minute or two. "See you then," she added attempting to sound more cheery than awestruck. She watched him walk a way down the corridor still in disbelief in what just happened. She had half the mind to think it was a cruel prank of Draco's or Pansy's, but he really did seem nervous and he did spend an awful lot of time in the library when she was there. It was possible that he did like her. _He thought that she was beautiful._ Just remembering his saying that make her cheeks pink. She had never been called beautiful before. No one besides her parents really thought she was much to look at, but now Viktor Krum—the Viktor Krum (Hermione tried to ignore the fact that he was a famous international Quidditch player and try to see him merely as a student, but that was not an easy task), thought she was pretty and she was going to go to the Yule Ball with him. She decided she would have to pull out all the stops for that evening. Viktor thought she was beautiful and she was going to be beautiful, as beautiful as she could be anyway. Harry and Ron would hardly recognize her. She then had the sudden urge to run and tell them. Ron would be over the moon. Obviously he would be shocked that Viktor would pay any attention to her ("But you don't know a thing about Quidditch!"), but probably immensely happy at the prospect of getting to spend an evening in close proximity to him. She set off, fast paced, for the Gryffindor common room. _Wait until they heard…_she stopped. _No, they wouldn't hear. She wouldn't tell them. They would just have to be surprised._


End file.
